MATT STARTS SEASON WITH A WIN!

Matt with crew chief Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen got the pole on the last run of the night with an astonishing elapsed time of 3.822 seconds at 335.57 mph that matches the NHRA world records the team set last year.

It is the second time in the past five Mello Yello events - dating to the event in Reading, Pa. last October - that Pritchett and Hagan started race day in the No. 1 qualifying position.

"We got a new guy strapping me in the car so I've been getting in with the first pair of Funny Cars to make sure we had time for me to get comfortable," he said of not anticipating a lengthy delay for track clean-up. "I probably sat in there a good hour and I was like, 'Oh my goodness, let's go!' My legs were falling asleep and everything else. I was trying not to fall asleep in there.

"It was worth the wait obviously. We went out there and just laid down a great number. That just speaks tons for Dickie Venables. He rolled it out of the box here and we've been pretty much low about every session."

"I'm just super pumped that Dickie's got a lot of confidence rolling into the first race. Tomorrow is race day and anything can happen. Even having a great racecar, you've still got to stay very humble. Anything can happen on race day."

Hagan, a two-time Funny Car world champion, also tied his national records for elapsed time (3.822 seconds) and speed (335.57 mph) with crew chief Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen.